The Lehigh Valley's air quality gets some failing grades in the American Lung Association's annual report card.

Lehigh and Northampton counties both got an "F" grade for smog in the association's report, State of the Air 2011. Northampton also failed on measurements of soot. In the report's wee bit of good news, the valley received a passing grade for year-round particle pollution. Read the report here. Warren County also is ranked with the valley and saw its grade for soot pollution improve from a "C" to a "B."

This, incredibly, is an improvement over last year's findings.

According to the lung association, "Although residents of the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Metro Area continue to breathe unhealthy levels of ozone and short-term particle pollution, there was an improvement in absolute terms from last year’s report. Even as the rest of the country showed substantial improvement for fine particle pollution levels, the metropolitan area still improved in comparison – advancing from 26th to 33rd most polluted city in the U.S. Nevertheless, it was the third worst metropolitan area in Pennsylvania, outside of the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh metropolitan areas."

Particle and ozone (smog) are the two most common types of air pollution, the lung association says. They can cause all sorts of health problems or exacerbate existing maladies, it says.

To help the local air quality, the association recommends driving less or taking the bus; forgoing the burning of trash; using less electricity and asking your school district to operate "clean" school buses.

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ABOUT THE WRITERS

TIM DARRAGH has been reporting and editing the news for 30 years, most of it at The Morning Call. For much of that time, he's been doing award-winning investigative and in-depth reporting projects. Tim created the three-year-long Change of Heart project, and wrote a series on the state's fractured food inspection system that led to widespread improvements in food safety. Meantime, that novice jogger you see plodding along the streets around Bethlehem Township? That would be Tim.